Founding Partner Bruce Barket continues to fight aggressively for the welfare of his client, Nicholas Tartaglione. For the second time, he has asked the Court for his client's removal from the notorious Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan to Nassau County Correctional Center because of ongoing issues, many of which Barket and his co-counsel cited in their 2019 request.
“Over the course of the last 4 years the MCC has proven it cannot provide a safe, clean facility for Mr. Tartaglione while he awaits trial and either will not or cannot provide constitutionally-mandated access to counsel for an inmate facing a death penalty trial,” Barket wrote in the request. He cited long-standing issues such as infestations, leaks, and limited access to laundry and showers, as well as the loss of personal items and legal papers when Tartaglione is moved to a new cell or unit. Correction officers have singled out Tartaglione for his complaints about conditions, parading him around the cell block to point out the issues, and setting him up as a target for retaliation by other inmates, Barket argued.
Barket wrote that Tartaglione has been unable to review discovery materials in his case for the past six months. Quarantine restrictions and various lockdowns have prevented Tartaglione and his legal team from meeting in person since February 2018. The access to counsel issues predate the pandemic, Barket wrote, but the lockdowns have exacerbated them.
